Thank you, Lord, for opening my eyes 30+ years ago and freeing me from this bondage of guilt, shame, and “it’s never enough”. Soften the hearts of those clearly searching and give them ears to hear. Let them truly feel the finished work of Your sacrifice on the cross. Amen.
The story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead as explained by Charles Spurgeon I found very interesting in how it relates to our own salvation. (see below)
Lazarus is dead. Bound up and dead. He can’t do ANYTHING. Yet Jesus can, and does - SAVES him. Jesus calls him to come out. Giving Lazarus the chance to say no I suppose. But Lazarus responds to Jesus.
And Jesus gives a command to the others to unbind him. Spurgeon relates that to how Christians further along their walk are to help the “new-borns” in growing their faith.
A faith that will require repentance along the way, and a faith that will include doing the work of God. IIRC there are three Greek words used in the NT for our word “works”.
One (and the most frequent) refers to God’s works as He performs them through us, which is the “faith without works” type.
The second refers to a person’s works. Our own personal striving.
A rarely used one refers to Satan’s works IIRC.
https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/unbinding-lazarus/#flipbook/